of what reagan got elected with. so it may not be time for a get it made, got it made attitude like we had before the first debate, but it's a very good time for some sound, solid, professional confidence, that by taking the right steps now, going full bore on what you have to sell, you will win this thing. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show" from new york. 27 days until the 2012 election and mitt romney is proving the to be a man without conviction. he shakes the etch a sketch yet again on women's rights. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> wow. here's old moderate mitt. where you been, boy? i missed you all these last two years. >> president clinton rises again as mitt romney implodes over a woman's right to choose. tonight, terry o'neill of the national organization for women on mitt romney's war on women

etch a sketch. bob shrum on the candidate without a core. >> it's very important for folks to just make sure that they understand that as long as people stay focused, we will win this thing. >> the president is rallying the troops as joe biden gets ready to take on lying ryan. >> trust me, i come from detroit west. we know we need a healthy auto sector. >> howard fineman and john nichols have the debate preview. and from the coal mine owner to the real estate mogul, ceos are holding their workers hostage to get votes for mitt romney. tonight, former labor secretary robert reich on the revolt of the plutocrats. >> i'll tell you, you've got a great boss, he runs a great operation. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. mitt romney is the candidate who will say whatever it takes to win. the race is tightening, but romney still needs to win over women voters. romney offered this moderate position when asked by a local

iowa reporter if he will pursue any legislation specifically regarding abortion. >> there's no legislation with regards to abortion that i'm familiar with that would become part of my agenda. >> that statement is at odds with romney's entire campaign. his running mate and his party platform. president obama called romney on it during an interview with abc news. >> this is another example of governor romney hiding positions he's been campaigning on for a year and a half. >> does he lie? >> no, i actually think his position on, when it comes to women's rights to control their own health care decisions, you know, what he has been saying is exactly what he believes. he thinks that it is appropriate for politicians to inject themselves into those decisions. i think governor romney has made it very clear that if a bill comes to his desk that overturns roe versus wade, that he will be

fully supportive of that. >> romney's own vice presidential candidate has introduced legislation to restrict abortion. reporters asked paul ryan if he's on the same page with romney. >> our position's unified. our position's consistent and that hasn't changed. >> what is your position? >> you'll find -- i'm sure you'll find out in these debates. >> were you upset that he said that to -- >> no, no position change. our position's very consistent. >> romney could only dodge the question so much. the campaign went into full spin mode. romney's spokeswoman, andrea saul, had to mop it up again. she gave a statement to the conservative nation"national re" governor romney would of course support legislation aimed at providing greater protections for life." tony perkins got on the phone to say, don't worry, romney made a gaffe, this is not a change of position at all. perkins confirmed the campaign

called and assured him romney wasn't changing his support for pro-life issues. romney himself tried to dig himself out of a hole. >> i'm a pro-life candidate and i'll be a pro-life president. the actions i'll take immediately are to remove funding for planned parenthood. >> it's hard to understand how mitt romney can tell iowa reporters there's no legislation on abortion in his agenda. romney admits he'll sign a bill to defund planned parenthood. he also wants to defund nonprofits, providing abortions in foreign countries. romney says he'll sign legislation reversing roe v. wade. he wants to appoint supreme court justices who will overturn roe v. wade. my friends, this is the most extreme pro-life agenda a presidential candidate could ever have. romney's statements to the iowa paper would be the most radical 180 on abortion rights if it wasn't for the complete 180 he's already made on something else.

>> i will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose and your effort to continue to try to create fear and deception here is unbecoming. it's an issue that's important. i've established my view very clearly. >> he basically attacked me and said i was, quote, unbecoming for having questioned his voracity. that i was questioning his integrity. >> i will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose and am devoted and dedicated to honoring my word in that regard. >> that clip was from the pbs "fro "frontline" documentary called "the choice." the interview with romney's supporters show a candidate without a core. >> it's tough to say what he believes. i'm not sure, exactly, what he believes on social issues, even though i was closely involved in the campaign. mitt romney was certainly comfortable being a liberal on social issues, in 2002, if it was going to help him win, and that's clearly what it would

take many massachusetts to win. >> you can watch the entire documentary, "frontline" documentary on our website, ed.msnbc.com. i highly recommend you watch it. you will see a candidate who can change his convictions so easily because he has no true convictions. mitt romney is a guy with no backbone. he's a wind sock at airport. he'll go whichever way he has to. former president bill clinton noticed the lack of romney's core during the presidential debate. >> i thought, wow. here's old moderate mitt. where you been, boy? i missed you all these last two years. >> the deal was made by severe conservative mitt. that was how he described himself, for two whole years. until three or four days before the debate, they all got together and said, hey, man, this ship is sinking faster than the "titanic." but people are still frustrated

about the economy and they want it fixed yesterday. so just show up with a sunny face and say, i didn't say all that stuff i said the last two years. >> women can't trust a candidate who changes his position on women's rights all the time. conservatives can't trust him either. but they're willing to put up with him. the corporate world is behind mitt romney because they know that they can manipulate him. they can cash with him, maybe. they know he has no backbone. if he shifts his position, that means any corporation can walk into the oval office and have a chance to get what they want. and that's what they like. if mitt romney is in the white house, the right-wingers will walk him like a dog. having a president with no convictions is like having no president at all. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, can voters trust mitt romney? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639. you can always go to our blog and leave a comment at ed.msnbc.com. we'll bring you the results later on in the show.

i'm joined tonight by terry o'neill, president of the national organization for women. bob shrum's with us tonight as well, democratic strategist and professor at nyu. all right, terry, you first. which mitt romney do you believe? the pro-life moderate who spoke in iowa to the "des moines register" on record? or the hard right-winger on the campaign trail? which is it? >> honestly, i think he was lying to the "des moines register." i think he is hard right. i think the that he will -- he will be as good as his promise to defund planned parenthood, to defund family planning clinics that offer abortions, or that even refer women to abortion. i think that he will -- that he will absolutely support and sign a personhood amendment, if it should get to his desk, which we intend not to let that happen. i think he was lying to the "des moines register," because he knows that those very positions are deeply unpopular. they're unpopular with male voters, but they are particularly unpopular with women voters.

and i think it's important for your viewers to know, women are not fooled. >> sure. >> women are not as stupid as he seems to think we are. >> bob, what about mitt romney? has he always lacked a political core and it's just rearing its head throughout this long process of this campaign season? that he's so lacking in his commitment and his backbone and his convictions, he just can't help but having it come out? >> well, listen, this was etch a sketch at warp speed. but i think he's always been an opportunist. we have to be careful, though, because what he's trying to do now is give these sounds of moderation. the happy face, as bill clinton put it. but who is is he really? and i think we can judge that by what happened in massachusetts. you showed that clip from 2002. he said the same thing in 1994. he became governor, he tried to outlaw stem cell research, claiming that it was the taking of life. he then said that he wanted to see the end of roe v. wade, which he once had said he wanted to see codified, so states could

decide. and he then said he wanted a human life amendment that would outlaw abortion across the country. the real romney is severely anti-choice. and what he's doing hear, whether it's on choice, on pre-existing conditions, on tax cuts for the rich, is all a deception designed to trick people into voting against themselves. >> so, terry, it seems like mitt romney will do the bidding of the fundamentalists like tony perkins if he becomes president? >> i think he will, but i think it's his own bidding too. i think it was important of you to show that clip of him bullying during the debate in 2002. that is the way he is with women. the stories that have emerged out of massachusetts, where he tried to bully a woman who was -- whose pregnancy was actually threatening her life. she had -- she and her husband had gotten permission from the mormon church elders to terminate this life-threatening abortion. he went in and tried to intimidate her into not terminating this -- that

pregnancy. that is the way he is with women. and he -- so my sense of him is that he will lie without conscious, because it's the same thing, as intimidating and bullying. it's manipulation, it's just doing whatever he wants to do in order to get what he wants. >> sure. let's watch what conservative columnist david brooks had to say about mitt romney in this "frontline" documentary. here it is. >> i really think that he is a product of a war where you do market research, you find out what's working, what's not working. you do controlled experiments. and then you dovetail your product to suit the market place. >> bob shrum, is that an accurate and fair assessment? >> i think it's entirely accurate. it's also what president clinton said. it's what you and i have discussed before. for him the pursuit of the presidency is a business plan. go out and figure out what the consumers want to hear, tell them what they want to hear. it's just like when you're taking over a company and you tell those workers, build the grandstand. we're going to make this company work. and what all along you intend to close down the company, take a lot of profits out of it and

fire all the workers. i think -- listen, it's fundamentally important here that we understand that this guy does represent the right. i don't know whether he's simply a hostage to the right or whether he believes it. i think he believes it. and if he becomes president, all sorts of things that we care about, whether it's women's rights, whether it's rights for hispanics and immigrants, whether it's civil rights, those things are on the line. and i just hope we don't see a repeat in the debate tomorrow night of the shame of that first debate where hispanics is and women and gay people and african-americans didn't even seem to exist in domestic policy. >> so, this is irreversible damage, for suburban women. would you agree with that, terry? >> oh, absolutely. i think suburban women are going -- are not going to vote for mitt romney. i think they see right through his deception. and i think that they actually, it's incredibly offensive and demeaning to women to treat us as if we're so stupid that we

would believe this kind of hoaxerism. we're looking for a president that we can take at his word. barack obama is pro-choice and he means it when he says he's pro-choice. mitt romney will say anything and do anything and he is not the right president for women. >> i think all of us in our lifetime come across people who do business deals and they will say anything they possibly can to get the deal, close the deal at closing, and mitt romney comes off as one of these guys. i mean, how in the world can he sit there with the "des moines register" and say that it's not a part of his agenda or any legislation, and then hours later go out and say the total opposite. and he must know that all of this videotape is on record of what he has said in the past. i find it absolutely mind-boggling. >> and his whole strategy at this point, we saw it in the debate, is to give off these elm nations of moderation. somehow or other, you know, you can trust me. he even wants the flip-flop imagine

image to work for him so people will think he's kind of safe. >> and with all these lies, he's in a close race. i find it amazing. terry o'neill, bob shrum, great to have you with us tonight. thank you. be sure to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen there, share your thoughts with us on twitter and on facebook. we always want to know what you think. coming up, president obama is fired up and ready to go in his first interview about last week's debate, he has tough words for mitt romney and shares his thoughts on joe biden's debate, coming up. that's next. you're watching the ed show on msnbc. stay with us. many of my patientn their dentures with toothpaste. but they have to use special care in keeping the denture clean. dentures are very different to real teeth. they're about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. polident is designed to clean dentures daily. its unique micro-clean formula kills 99.9% of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains, cleaning in a better way than brushing with toothpaste. that's why i recommend using polident. [ male announcer ] polident. cleaner, fresher and brighter every day.

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not the only tea partier facing a tough re-election fight. the list is growing. i'll talk with msnbc political analyst karen finney. share your thoughts on facebook with us and also on twitter using #edshow. we're coming right back. ] [ laughing ] [ laughing ] [ laughing ] ♪ [ dog barking ] ♪ [ female announcer ] life is full of little tests, but your basic paper towel can handle them. especially if that towel is bounty basic. the towel that's durable and scrubbable. in this lab demo,

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tomorrow's vice presidential debate in danville, kentucky, will be a completely new experience for his running mate. so don't expect too much from paul ryan. mitt might want to brush up on some of the facts. as abc news reports, ryan has actually participated in at least eight debates during his 14 years in congress according to available articles and information provided by the ryan campaign. they're saying he's not a rookie. president obama gave his thoughts on the ryan/biden debate earlier. >> well, i think joe just needs to be joe. congressman ryan is a smart and effective speaker. but his ideas are the wrong ones. and joe understands that. >> meanwhile, president obama is critiquing his own debate performance, at length, for the first time. here he is with tom joyner. >> i mean, you know, the debate, i think, it's fair to say, i was

just too plait. because, you know, it's hard to sometimes just keep on saying what you're saying isn't true. it gets repetitive. but, you know, the good news is, is that's just the first one. >> the president reiterated that message with diane sawyer. >> governor romney had a good night, i had a bad night. >> how bad? >> well, it's not the first time i've had a bad night, but i think what's important is that the fundamentals of what this race is about haven't changed. you know, governor romney went to a lot of trouble to try to hide what his positions are, because he knows that those ideas have been rejected. >> is it possible you handed him the election that night? >> no. >> you're going to win? >> yes. >> joining me now is howard fineman, nbc news political analyst and the editorial director for the "huffington post" media group and the road warrior of debates. coming to us tonight from louisville, kentucky. >> my old hometown, ed. my old hometown.

>> there you go. what do you make of the president's remarks there? saying that he was -- on that radio interview, that he might have been too polite against mitt romney? what about that? >> well, that's the most benign explanation he could have given. i think the more important thing was he sounded pretty emphatic when diane sawyer asked, did you blow the election on that night, and he said, no, and he didn't hesitate. and she said, are you going to win the election, and he said, yes. that's what he has to say. he has to convey a sense of confidence and joy about what he's doing and enjoy the combat. because there are big issues at stake here, ed, as the president said. and they'll be front and center in the debate in danville, kentucky, east of here tomorrow. this is a fundamental discussion about the role of government. mitt romney in that debate the other week used the phrase "trickle-down government," which is a very clever and very condescending formulation of what government is. the government programs that we have, that include social security and medicare and medicaid and education and so

forth come from the ground up. they're what people want, they're what people need, they're what people voted for. they're part of the fabric of american life. they're not trickle-down anything. and what the president has to do and what joe biden has to do tomorrow night is to confront that notion. joe biden has to not only defend the president and attack paul ryan for his libertarian ideas, joe biden has to defend social security and medicare and the very idea of the usefulness and the importance of government in sharing responsibility in america, a big, heavy lift for joe biden tomorrow night. >> it's a heavy lift, howard, i agree, but it's also right in his wheelhouse. everyone in this country knows his middle class background. he is true to his value of helping the middle class. he legislated that way for 30 years in the senate. some think that joe biden's been put in an untenable position, a tough position. but isn't this good for biden? and i think for the president to come out and say joe's got to be joe, that's kind of saying, joe, you go out there and let them

have it, isn't it? >> well, yeah, and joe biden, after all, was in the senate for 37 years. he was very much a part of the democratic party establishment and democratic party ideology about the role of helping the poor and the middle class through cooperative effort and through government programs. and he's going to defend it. i think maybe one of his strongest avenues of attack on paul ryan is the fact that paul ryan himself, paul ryan's family, paul ryan's business, paul ryan's whole life in janisville, wisconsin, when he was busy sitting there reading ayn rand and dreaming of a libertarian independent future, that whole life was made possible by the help of government. by social security supplemental income when his father died at a young age. by roads, by railroads, by government programs. this is a cooperative effort. and this is what mitt romney and paul ryan are rejecting and what

joe biden and barack obama need too defend. it couldn't be more fundamental or more urgent, because without the counterargument, mitt romney is rocketing to the lead in the popular vote and he's catching up in the electoral college very quickly. it couldn't be more important tomorrow night. everybody says vice presidential debates don't matter. this one really does. >> i think it does. i think it really does. it's -- and i also think it sets the table for ryan to prove that hays the true conservative, that the conservatives want him to be. and the question is, is he going to leave that stage being the same guy or is he going to go with the ticket a little bit? it's going to be very interesting to see. >> well, it's up to -- it's up to joe biden to expose that contradiction. >> that will play right in his wheelhouse. howard fineman tonight with us from louisville, kentucky. coming up, paul ryan is making the pitch that he's committed to the american automobile industry. really? we'll take a look at just how real his record is about auto jobs with t"the nation's" john

nichols. then, the box ass and the ballot box.

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welcome back to "the ed show" and thanks for watching tonight. vice presidential nominee paul ryan is out on the campaign trail, trying to pull a fast one on voters. he's trying to convince people in auto manufacturing states that the romney/ryan ticket will actually fight for the u.s.

automobile industry. he made this pitch to michigan voters on monday. >> know this -- we want the strongest auto sector, we want american manufacturing to have a comeback, and the way we do that is we stop sending all of our decisions to washington with a government-driven economy. >> awe, the government-driven economy paul ryan is talking about, well, brought our auto industry back to life. president obama 2009 auto loan saved gm and chrysler along with hundreds of thousands of jobs with the ripple effect throughout the industry. meanwhile, paul ryan needs to do some research of his own, on his running mate. mitt romney has trashed the auto loan more than once. >> were there some institutions that should not have been bailed out? absolutely. should they have used the funds to bail out general motors and chrysler? no. there's no question that if you just write a check, that you're going to see these companies go out of business, ultimately. >> you said, quote, if general motors and chrysler get the

bailouts they asked for, you can kiss the american auto industry good-bye. >> that's exactly right. if you write a check, you can kiss them good-bye. >> mr. mitt romney cannot hide from his record on auto loan, no matter how hard he spins it, he wanted to let them go bankrupt. he said it and he wrote it. he also tried to michigan voters by telling them he's from detroit west. >> i represent southern wisconsin. we lost four auto factories in the area i represent in just the last four years. trust me, i come from detroit we west. we know we need a healthy auto sector. >> let's trust him. well, one of those plants closed under george w. bush, but all of them closed while paul ryan was representing the district. voters need to be wary of paul ryan's new pitch. just this week, general motors

announced it's adding 2,000 new jobs in the state of michigan. gm is also planning to in source 10,000 technology jobs to michigan over the next three to five years. this would not be happening if we had gone down the road that mitt romney suggested of letting detroit go bankrupt. and if you just write a check, they'll go out of business. not the case. they missed it by a long shot. let's turn to john nichols, washington correspondent for "the nation" magazine and author of the book "uprising. john, you know the territory he is talking about. paul ryan says he's committed to the united states automobile industry. does his record reflect this in his campaign pitch? >> not in the least. and it's kind of shocking that he would go to other states and pitch himself as a champion of the american auto industry. when paul ryan was elected to congress in 1998, southeastern wisconsin was one of the centers for auto-making and for auto

parts. under his watch, a major auto parts plant, delphi closed, the kenosha plant closed, the jan janesville plant in his own hometown closed. and at least in part they closed because of trade rules and federal policies that paul ryan backed. his own constituents, members of the united auto workers and local 95 and local 72 begged him to vote on the side of auto workers and he did not. >> okay, so the trade agreements that he supported hurt the automobile industry, and he didn't work for his constituents to keep those plants open. that's on the record. now what about the automobile loan that was out there? do you think people will buy his bogus campaign pitch into auto manufacturing states? >> i would hope that they would look at it much more seriously. because the fact of the matter

is, paul ryan has been in the forefront of bashing these sorts of interventions, even where occasionally he has been supportive of some sort of initiative for the auto industry, it's always been grudgingly. this isn't someone who's passionate about keeping manufacturing jobs in the u.s. or keeping american workers in those plants. and i hope that joe biden remembers to bring this up tomorrow. it is a fundamental issue in states like pennsylvania and ohio, michigan, and wisconsin. >> and john, how aggressive should joe biden, the vice president, get in tomorrow's debate? should he pounce on this auto loan? >> i sure hope he does. because the fact of the matter is, the auto loan issue is one of the core messages that came out of that democratic national convention. if you look at what really connected with people, what they got, it was the idea that this administration went to the mat to save an american industry. that's fdr kind of stuff. and i happen to think, you can't go wrong with it. >> now, mitt romney says that he

hadn't had a debate, his partner hasn't had a debate since high school. what are we expecting from paul ryan in tomorrow night's debate? >> mitt romney ought to get to know his campaign partner, his running mate. paul ryan has been in debates, in most of his congressional races. he's been in television debates, in town hall debates, and i would remind people that he was the republican point man in the debate on health care reform. he actually closed that debate off on the floor of the house. this notion that paul ryan doesn't know how to debate, this effort to lower expectations is comic. paul ryan knows how to debate. the question is whether he's going to be able, in a debate, to defend his stances and those of mitt romney. >> especially that ryan budget, up against joe biden. john nichols, great to have you with us tonight. thanks a lot. there's a lot more coming up in the next half hour of "the ed show." stay with us. >> i'll tell you, you've got a great boss. he runs a great operation here. >> the federal election commission is now involved over

mitt romney's use of coal miners as props. robert reich on the plutocrat's revolt is next. the mother of a navy s.e.a.l. killed in benghazi asks mitt romney to stop using her son as a political prop. that story, ahead. and congressman joe walsh has reached yet another new low. >> tammy duckworth, who's on a stage down in charlotte, if you can look at the picture, picking out a dress for her speech tuesday night. >> tonight, karen finney on why the tea party crazies could be facing extinction. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about low-cost investing.

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astrazeneca may be able to help. welcome back to "the ed show." so you're an independent thinker and you don't like people telling you what to do. imagine how would you feel if your boss told you how to vote. hundreds of thousands of workers are being told to vote for mitt romney or else. we're seeing more and more of these high-pressure tactics

lately. this wealthy boss could be in big trouble for strongarming his employees. his name's robert murray. he runs murray energy in ohio. he's the one who forced miners to attend this romney rally without pay. ohio democrats, they want an investigation. now the federal elections commission is giving murray 15 days to sfond to allegations he strong armed his employees to make campaign contributions. murray says re-electing the president will destroy his employees. he's got a conspiracy theory, which actually made a fox news anchor laugh. >> it's a human issue to me, because it's the lives and livelihoods of my employees, neil, that he is destroying. the next thing you're going to have obama doing is asking for legislation to pay people's electric bills. >> murray's not the only boss trying to put a thumb on the election scale. time share billionaire david siegel is now explaining his pressure tactics to cnbc.

siegel's the guy building the biggest mansion in america. he sent an e-mail telling employees he'd lose his motivation to work if the president's re-elected. he's threatening to retire and close up shop. siegel swears he's not trying to pressure employees, he's just educating them. funny, the koch brothers, they say the same thing. darrell and charles koch sent a list of suggested candidates to 500,000 employees during the last election. monday, they launched a $1 million ad campaign in 13 states. they say they're just educating voters. all of these millionaire and billionaire bosses are supporting romney for several reasons. romney will cut their taxes and deregulate their industries. it's not about the workers, it's about using the workers to deliver greater wealth to these bosses. let's turn to robert reich, former secretary of labor under bill clinton and now a professor at public policy at uc berkeley and author of the book, "beyond outrage." this would take many employees,

i think, to outrage, knowing that their job could be on the line if they don't vote the way the boss wants them to. mr. reich, good to have you with us tonight. do these ceos care more about their employees or their bottom line? >> ed, there's no question. they care not only about their bottom lines, but they treat their employees as costs to be cut rather than assets to be developed. and that is the new corporate code, in many corporations. and you see the revolt of these plutocrats. i mean, they are now saying because they are so worried that the possibility is that their taxes might be raised, even though they've never had as much money before, even though the 400 richest americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million americans put together, even though we are now seeing more inequality than we've had in this country in over 100 years, since the era of the robber barons, these people have the nerve to tell their employees that if obama is re-elected and if their taxes are raised, they will slim down,

they will fire employees, they will have to simply close up shop. that is ridiculous. they have no historical sense. obviously, taxes are lower on them today than they were in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s. and also, these people seem to have no patriotic sense. i mean, they are part of a society. they have some obligations to society, and yet they are saying, i don't want to be taxed and if i'm taxed, then i'm going to take it out on all of you, that have less job security than you've ever had, whose wages continue to drop, and whose homes not worth 30% less than they were worth before. >> do you think these pressure tactics are going to work on workers? i mean, there is, you know, a fear in the job place in america when bosses act like this. you know, they don't want to lose their job. they saw harry down the street lost his job and their family is having a hard time. that kind of thinking sets in, what the heck, it's just a vote, i'm going to go ahead and do it. what do you think about that? >> it's possible, ed.

this is a very, very, very tight election. and even if you have 5% of the workers who are intimidated like this or 3% or 2%, it could make a difference. and with unemployment still high, it's getting better, but unemployment's still high, a lo there's not enough job security out there to guard against this kind of intimidation. >> what do you think about using these bosses, that mitt romney had these miners to get up there as props, and now there's an investigation. as labor secretary, from your experience, what could this do? what could it mean? >> well, i think, first of all, we have got to protect the rights of workers in terms of their free speech, free association, their right to vote, their right not to be interfered with. i mean, after all, we now have a supreme court that is calling corporations people and saying corporations have first amendment rights. well, what about the first amendment rights of the common worker? the ordinary person who's the trying, simply, to make enough

money to keep his family or her family and house and home and is being told by an employer that they've got a vote a certain way. it seems to me that if we have any meaning to the first amendment at all, these workers ought to be protected. if the labor laws have any meaning at all, these workers deserve to be protected. ed, let me just say win other thing. because it's a background condition. these plutocrats, these bullying billionaires, what they are worried about is a slight hike in their taxes, maybe back to what it was during bill clinton's era. but you know, barack obama not only bailed out wall street, even though wall street is now all running in romney's direction. barack obama got the stock market back. now the dow jones industrial average is almost back to what it was before. barack obama made sure that the economy was so healthy that 93% of the benefits of this recovery so far have gone to the top 1%. and yet, these are the people in the top 1/10 of 1%, the top 1/100 of 1%, these are the people saying, we don't want to be taxed and we're going to take

it out on our employees. well, if anybody has declared class warfare, it's these guys. >> no doubt. robert reich, glad to have you on "the ed show." coming up, the mother of a former navy s.e.a.l. killed in the september 11th attack in libya tells mitt romney to stop using her son's story on campaithe campaign trail. stay tuned. more pills. triple checking hydraulics. the evening brings more pain. so, back to more pills. almost done, when... hang on. stan's doctor recommended aleve. it can keep pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is rudy. who switched to aleve. and two pills for a day free of pain. ♪ [ female announcer ] and try aleve for relief from tough headaches. email marketing from constant contact reaches people in a place they're checking every day -- their inbox.

and it gives you the tools to create custom emails that drive business. it's just one of the ways constant contact can help you grow your small business. sign up for your free trial today at constantcontact.com/try. up next, mitt romney tries to politicize the libyan consulate attack again by connecting himself to one of the navy s.e.a.l.s killed in the attack. now the s.e.a.l.'s mother is responding. stay tuned. [ male announcer ]s red lobster's endless shrimp, just $14.99! try as much as you like, any way you like! like parmesan crusted shrimp. hurry in, offer ends soon! i'm ryan isabell and i see food differently.

he served as a navy s.e.a.l. and after his service as a s.e.a.l., after a number of years, he had stayed involved, helping in the middle east, providing security services to our government and to other enterprises, to provide help to them. and you can imagine how shocked i was to learn that he was one of the two navy, former navy s.e.a.l.s killed in benghazi,

just a couple of weeks ago. >> welcome back to "the ed show." sthafs mitt romney on the campaign trail in ohio today, recalling a chance encounter he had with glen doherty, a former navy s.e.a.l. who died in the september 11th attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. romney began telling the story yesterday, a day after he used the attack to criticize p president obama in a foreign policy speech at virginia military institute. but he won't be telling that story again. barbara doherty, the former s.e.a.l.'s mother, told her local nbc affiliate that she did not appreciate romney's use of her son's story on the campaign trail. he said, "i don't trust romney. he shouldn't make my son's death part of the political agenda. it's wrong to use these brave young men who wanted freedom for all, to degrade obama." when reached for comment, the romney camp told buzz feed, "governor romney was inspired by the memory of meeting glen doherty and shared his story and that memory. we respect theish withes of mrs.

doherty, though." but elf elifson remembered the meeting to be very different. >> he said it was pathetic and comicical to have the same person come up to you within only a half hour, reintroduce himself to you, having absolutely no idea whatsoever that he just did this 20 minutes ago, and did not even recognize glen's face. >> governor romney, who doesn't have any credibility on foreign policy, chooses to politicize the death of this american hero. and to make this story fit his agenda, he apparently had to lie. tonight in our survey, i asked, can voters trust mitt romney? 9% of you say yes, 91% of you say no. coming up, congressman joe walsh desperately tries to hold on to his seat against iraq war veteran tammy duckworth.

and tea party mt. rushmore is under threat. karen finney joins me for the discussion. stay with us.

and in the big finish tonight, the tea party mt. rushmore, i love this, is under threat by some strong democratic challengers around the country. here are the tea partyers as portrayed by talking points memo. congresswoman michele bachmann of minnesota, congressman alan west of florida, congressman

steve king of iowa, and congressman joe walsh of illinois. congressman walsh, he's a dandy. he's fighting for his political life in a redrawn district favoring iraq war veteran tammy duckworth. here's one of walsh's desperate attacks in their recent debate. >> i was marching in a parade in chaumburg sunday, two days before the democratic congre convention, when tammy duckworth was on a stage down in charlotte, if you can see the picture, picking out a dress for her debate sunday night. wal >> walsh was booed. duckworth, who is a war hero, a double amputee as well, had an answer. >> i do sometimes look at the clothes that i wear. but for most of my adult life, i've worn one color, it's called camoufla camouflage. >> congressman alan west is a hung favorite of the tea party crowd and is being challenged by a strong democrat, patrick murphy. congressman west campaigned with

mitt romney just a few days ago. >> you saw wednesday night was when the opportunity society takes the stage with the dependency society. the opportunity society wins. they believe in creating and expanding a welfare nanny state and you see that with the unemployment, you see that with the food stamps, you see that with americans in poverty. >> congresswoman bachmann has been pretty quiet as of late, don't you think? at least on the national stage as she fights to keep her seat against a wealthy self-made businessman, democrat, graves. congressman king is also being challenged by the former first lady of iowa, kristi vilsack, wife of tom vilsack. let's bring in karen finney tonight, msnbc political analyst and former communications director for the dnc. karen, great to have you with us tonight. i love this story, because all of a sudden, all of these fast-talking, right-wingers who were all after obama, they're now home trying to defend their turf and they're all in trouble.

what do you make of it? >> i love this story, ed, because it show s hope for our country. because, remember, most of these folks are the reason that things have not been getting down in this town for the last couple of years. and the dirty little secret is, there are plenty of republicans who will be just as happy to see many of these folks go. because they know, those tea party folks, they came to this town not to try to get something done for their constituents or for the country. they came here to build their own reputations, get their own press, and because of their ideology. so, and remember, they came here with the whole goal of compromise being a dirty word, which is the direct conflict with the whole spirit of our constitution. >> is walsh probably the most vulnerable of all of them? do you think he's going to lose his seat to duckworth? >> with a laook at the numbers, he is the most vulnerable. but steve king is very vulnerable, michele bachmann. and on the senate side, you have joe donnelly, a democrat, may

win indiana. and so much of it is -- i mean, joe walsh is not just ridiculous, but he's an embarrassment. and i think people like todd akin kind of put on the national stage for people to say, wait a second, these tea party people, this is not america. this is not what, you know, this is not advancing our country. and i think it gave people kind of a second look pat what that agenda really is. >> and then there's alan west. this congressman from florida said that romney's 47% remark may have been clumsy, but then he doubled down on it. >> really, the number is 48.6. that's the percentage of people in the united states of america that are receiving some form of government welfare assistance. and i'm not talking about medicare and medicaid. >> i'm not sure if that number's correct. what do you make of it? >> i think he was just making stuff up, like he usually seems to make stuff up when he talks. and i think one of the things we need to acknowledge, there have been a lot of great groups like credo and dccc doing great work, making sure we get rid of some

of the worst of the worst. >> you know, paul ryan is one of these guys. what do you think about tomorrow night? >> you know what, i got every -- all the faith in show. i've got to tell you. joe's going to keep it real and i think he's going to hold paul ryan's feet to the fire. i wrote about it in "the hill" this week. i don't think paul ryan is going to be able to squirm out of answering the questions with joe sitting right there, with, you know, kind of the tough questions to be asked. >> these are interesting races across the board, and in minnesota, congresswoman michele bachmann, it's always been three people for that seat. this time, it's only two. and i think that that is going to play a very, very interesting, because she didn't win by much the last time around, and now there's only two candidates and jim graves is very impressive. and bachmann and congressman king, you know they were so available to go on fox all the time and take down president obama, but, you know, we just don't see them too often these days, do we? karen, greo